What I want to talk to you about
today is the coming of the Son of Man. And these last few messages,
I've been talking about the subject of the last days. And of course,
when we talk about the last days, the last time, the last age,
we're talking about the New Covenant, New Testament age that we're
living in right now. The last days span from the death
and resurrection of Christ and His ascension all the way to
His second coming. That's the last days, the last
stage. And in Mark chapter 13, if you
look back at verse 1, here the Lord is speaking to His disciples,
it said in verse 1, and as He went out of the temple, One of
his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones
and what buildings are here. Talking about the temple in Jerusalem. And verse two says, And Jesus
answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There
shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
down. Now he's talking about the destruction
of the temple. I mean, that's clear. This temple
is going to be destroyed. Actually, the temple and the
whole city of Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. And so in verse
three it says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives over
against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked
him privately. Now they asked him a question.
And in verse four there it said, here's their question, it says,
tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign
when all these things shall be fulfilled? That's their question. The two parallel passages, one
in Matthew, Matthew 24, listen to how Matthew writes their question,
poses their question. It said, this is Matthew 24 in
verse 3, I'll just read it to you. It said, and as he sat upon
the Mount of Olives, The disciples came unto him privately saying,
tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign
of thy coming and of the end of the world? Now that's the
way Matthew puts it. Let me give you Luke's version
of it. Now these are parallel passages, there's no contradiction.
But look at, well let me just read Luke 21 verse seven. It
says, and they ask him, here's their question, as Luke puts
it, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? And what
sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? So
think about that. They're asking him a question
about the last age. He told them that the temple
was gonna be destroyed. And they ask him, well, when's
that gonna happen? They're talking about that. Matthew
adds, and the end of the world. So I think it's clear here that
what they have in mind is not only the destruction of the temple,
but also the last time when this whole age will end with the second
coming of Christ. But anyway, this passage, it's
prophetic, we know that. He's talking about things to
come. The problem that most commentators and translators have on this
is are these words of our Lord, through Mark 13, Matthew 24,
Luke 21, are they describing what we would call literal physical
things or literal spiritual things? You know, for example, look at
Mark 13, look at verse 24 that Mark read. He says, but in those
days after that tribulation, I believe that's saying after
the temple is destroyed, after Jerusalem is destroyed, The sun
shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and
the stars of heaven shall fall. Now think about that. Is he talking
about the physical sun and moon and the stars or is he using
that symbolically? Talking about the spiritual powers
and authorities of the nation Israel or some other groups of
rulers or whatever? And if he's talking about the
spiritual powers and authorities of Israel, Look over at verse
26. It says, And then shall they
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds. That's
like the four corners of the earth. From the uttermost part
of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. If he's talking
about the spiritual powers and authorities of Israel, do these
verses refer to Christ coming to judge Israel, which he did
in A.D. 70? That's when the temple was
destroyed. 70 A.D. And prior to that and after
that, he sent out the gospel by his apostles and preachers
into all the known world to gather his elect. Or do these verses
refer to Christ coming at the end of the age and gathering
his saints unto himself? You see what I'm saying? Which
way you gonna go with this? I was listening to a message
on this passage by a gospel preacher. And he said this, he said that
this whole passage in Mark 13 is talking only about the destruction
of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's not talking about
the second coming of Christ at all. And he said, if you keep
it in the context, that's the only way you can interpret it.
Well, I disagree. And you know how I'm a stickler
for context. You know, I've often told people,
they ask me, say, what are the rules of biblical interpretation?
I used to say there are three. Number one is context. Number
two is context. And number three is context.
Well, there are more rules for scriptural interpretation. But
I don't want to take any passage out of context. Because if you
do, then you won't get the intended meaning. what the Holy Spirit
intended for the writer. When I look at Mark 13, I want
to know what Mark had in mind, what the Spirit put upon his
mind. But I disagree with that preacher. I believe that what
we have here, and we're not spiritualizing to do this, but the words here
that Christ chose show forth both the destruction of the temple,
which marks the beginning of the new age, the destruction
of the temple. The new age was set forth, was
brought in by Christ on that cross when he said it's finished.
And you remember the veil was written into from top to bottom. And of course you know what the
unbelieving Jews did, the priests did, they sewed that veil back
together and hung it back up. And so they went on with their
Their false religion, that's what it was. But the words here,
I believe, show forth both truths related to the destruction of
the temple in Jerusalem and the end of the world at his second
coming. And what he's doing, he's describing this last days,
the day that we live in. We're living in the last days.
Now, we don't know when. the hour and the day that the
Lord's gonna come back, and we're not to be concerned with that. We're to stand watch, and that's
what he's gonna say here. But as the Lord, as he began
here, he talked about the destruction of the temple. He calls it, in
Jerusalem, he calls it the abomination of desolation. And we read about
that back in Daniel. Now, what I, you know, a lot
of people, the historians say that's when Titus came in Destroyed
went into the temple and set up Roman images idols in the
Holy of Holies and they call that the abomination, but this
temple was an abomination before that as I told you last week
There was no there was no Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of
Holies that had been whisked away back during the Babylonian
conquering of Israel And some scholars say there's nothing
back there but a big rock. And I don't know for sure if
that's true. But the unbelieving priest of Israel had turned that
temple into an abomination because they twisted the old covenant,
they twisted its elements, and made them a way of salvation. And not that which points to
Christ. You know that temple was all about Christ. It was
all about the shedding of His blood. The blood of bulls and
goats could never take away sin. The blood of Christ, it was pointing
to the glorious person and finished work of Christ. Paul said that
the Jews sought righteousness by their works, and they didn't
find righteousness because a sinner cannot be saved by their works. And they stumbled at the stumbling
stone. That means when Christ came,
they rejected Him. His message was a message that
they hated, because it exposed them as being lost, as being
idolaters. But what Christ is speaking of
here, back up here in verse 14, He says, but when you shall see
the abomination of desolation, what happened when the Roman
army came in and destroyed, that's the desolation. If Titus did
come in and set up a Roman image in there, that's an abomination
too. But my point is this, that temple had long been an abomination
to God because they had turned it into a self-righteous system
of work salvation. And that's an abomination. And I'm gonna show you in the
coming, the next messages, how there is an abomination of desolation
that we see today. And it has to do with false gospels,
false Christ preached by false preachers and false believers
in churches today that call themselves Christian, but are Christian
in name only. But they deny the truth, the
doctrine of Christ. That's an abomination. And the
desolation is coming when the Lord comes back. So think about
that. So all of this is setting up
the New Testament age. But look at verse 24. Here's
the first thing you see. He says in Mark 13, 24, but in
those days after that tribulation, after the temple was destroyed,
after Jerusalem is destroyed the sun shall be darkened and
the moon shall not give her light and The stars of heaven shall
fall and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken Now
here's what I say about this and this this I'm not alone in
this assessment of What went on in the days leading up? To the destruction of the temple
many of the things that are stated there can also be applied to
our day leading up to the second coming of Christ. All right? It's like my former pastor used
to say, the scripture is bifocal. You know, you've got to see near
and you've got to see far. Now there's some things that
happened leading up to the destruction of the temple that cannot be
applied to our day and the second coming of Christ. For example,
he says when you see this, see the army of, Luke said the army
surrounding the city, that's not gonna happen in our day.
And it says that when you see that, flee to the mountains and
flee here and flee there. When Christ comes a second time,
nobody's gonna be fleeing anywhere. I mean, you know what 1 Corinthians
15 says about it, don't you? How long is it going to take?
What does 1 Corinthians 15 say? Anybody know? The twinkling of
an eye. There won't be time to flee.
It's going to happen. He's coming, and that's it. He's
going to gather his people unto himself. And those who are found
without faith, without Christ, without His blood to wash away
their sins, without His righteousness, they'll stand before God at the
judgment on their own merits, which they have none. So what
are we to be concerned with? Well, mainly our relationship
with Christ. How do I stand in Him? That's
the issue. But the sun, the moon, the stars
here, do they represent the kingdoms
of the earth? False ministers of Judaism who
were in opposition to Christ and his church? But I'll tell
you this much, in the final end, and they could very well represent
that, But listen to this, in the final end of all things,
and we read about this in 2 Peter, the first message I preached
on this series on the last days, that this world's gonna be burned
up when Christ comes again. And in the final end, the literal
sun, the moon and the stars, all the powers in heaven will
be darkened, will be shaken. I mean, it's gonna be an event
like has never been. on its own. And he says in verse
25, the stars of heaven shall fall and the powers are in heaven
shall be shaken. Look at verse 26, and then shall
they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power
and glory. Now, could that apply to the
destruction of the temple? Well, yes. You know, the Son
of Man has come in judgment before. He came in judgment during the
flood of Noah. Noah's day, that was the son
of man coming in wrath. He came in the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. He came then. He came in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians.
And here, the destruction of the temple by the Romans. But
when he comes again, when he comes in his return, the second
coming of Christ, it's all gonna be over for this sin-cursed earth. It's gonna burn up. And as I said, all who are found
then without Christ, without a righteousness, they'll be called
to final judgment, they'll perish in eternal death and damnation.
And so I wanna emphasize this. When we think about the second
coming of Christ, what should we be concerned with? We're not
looking for signs. Now we're not unaware of the
way that things are going. Things that he says, and I'm
gonna show you that when we get to 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. Things that he says about the
last days. But here's what we as sinners
saved by grace should be concerned with. How do I stand in Christ? I told you, I think, a couple
of messages ago, maybe last week. They're basically, when we involve
ourselves in self-examination, the main two things that I want
to know, it's not am I living up to snuff. Am I doing enough? Because I can tell you right
now, I ought to do more. You ought to do more. And we
don't measure righteousness and holiness on a sliding scale.
We measure it by Christ. The perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. So here's what I want to be concerned
with. Number one, is the Christ I'm trusting for my whole salvation,
that I claim to believe in, that person, and that work that he
did, is he the true Christ of this book? Or is He a counterfeit? Because just like in the days
leading up to the destruction of the temple, where Christ said
there, look back here at Mark 13. He said, verse 21, He said,
and then if any man shall say to you, lo, here is Christ, or
lo, He is there, believe him not, for false Christ false prophets
shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect." You see that? I don't want to
be deceived here. I know that if I'm one of God's
elect, it's not possible for me to go through my life and
come to death Or, if I'm alive when Christ comes again, if I'm
one of God's elect, it's not possible for me to be found at
that time deceived. Because God is going to reveal
Himself to His people. You can mark it down. So my concern
is this. I don't want to be deceived.
I want to know, is the Christ that I'm preaching to you The
Christ that I believe, is he the true Christ of this Bible? Because there are false Christs.
And that's not just up to the destruction of Jerusalem. That
goes right on through the last days. Antichrist. Everybody's looking for the antichrist. John said in his day, the apostle
John said, it's already here. And there are many antichrists. Not just one man. One old theologian
made this statement. He said, you know, Christ is
God in human flesh, and He is God. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. You know what
that means? That means He can be everywhere.
And that's all found in one person. But Satan He's not omniscient
and omnipotent, and he's not omnipresent. Satan cannot be
everywhere at once. So it takes many, many antichrists
for him to do his work. And I believe that. But we're
gonna see when we get over into Paul's letters to the Thessalonians,
that the last days will be marked with false preachers, false Christianity. It'll be one of the main issues
that we recognize. Now again, we're not looking
for signs. We don't know when he's coming. We don't know the
hour and the day, and we're not to be concerned with that. But
I know this, that just like Israel of old, Under the old covenant,
who were called the people of God, most of that group was lost
in their sins, but only a remnant knew Christ, knew the gospel. A remnant according to the election
of grace. You know what? It's the same
today. I'm not saying that out of pride or some kind of elitist
position. I grew up. calling myself a Christian,
and I really didn't even know what a Christian was. I really
didn't know who Christ was. I didn't know who He was. I didn't
know why He came here and why He died and all of that. I didn't
know the truth. I thought I knew grace, but I
didn't. Because to me, grace was God accepting me on the basis
of something I did or decided. And my friend, that's not the
gospel. The gospel has to do with salvation conditioned on
Christ, who by himself as our surety, substitute, and redeemer,
fulfilled all the conditions that God requires that sealed
my destiny as a sinner saved by grace. It's all Christ. It's not conditioned on you.
If it were, it'd fail. It's not conditioned on me. It
has to do with a righteousness that I have no part in producing.
It's God's righteousness that's imputed to me, charged to me.
That blood that washed away my sins. God cannot charge His elect
with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? And that's the case. If I stand
before God, having my sins imputed to me, then I've got nothing
to look forward to but death and damnation. But if I stand
in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
then I've got the glory of God with the saints in heaven. to
look forward to for an eternity. And that's not a pipe dream now. That's not a, as Karl Marx called
it, the opiate. That's not just an opiate that
makes me feel better about life here on earth. No, it's the truth. How do we know that? Our Lord
arose from the dead and He ascended on high. And the angel told his
disciples when they watched him ascend on high, he said, why
stand you there gazing? The Lord who went up, he's coming
back to receive us unto himself. And so that's what I'm concerned
with. Am I really preaching and believing
in the true Christ of this book? And the only way you can know
that is by what the word of God says about him, the doctrine
of Christ. person of Christ, God manifest
in the flesh, the work of Christ, the finished work, redemption,
redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. Redemption is not some kind
of a blanket pardon that is successful or a failure based upon what
we do. We're bought and paid for. He
owns us. And that means at some point
in time, He's going to reveal Himself to us from His Word by
the power of the Spirit and bring us to know Christ. That's why
the Apostle Paul, he stated this in Philippians.
He said, Oh, that I may know Him and be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith or the faithfulness of Christ, the
righteousness of God by faith. Mark 13, look at verse 27. He
said, and then shall he send his angels and shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the
earth to the uttermost part of heaven. I mentioned last week
how the destruction of the temple actually was a foreshadowing,
I believe, of what's going to happen in the last stage when
Christ comes again. And so this right here, this
verse 27, it could refer to the gospel going out to the Gentiles
after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. But the language
here seems to involve more than that. Christ gathering his elect
from the four winds. Let me read you what Matthew
said about it. This is Matthew 24, 30. It's
this same verse, this same idea as stated by Matthew. It says,
and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and
great glory, and he shall send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet, You hear that? And they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the
other. Now that may have a limited application
to these specific days of the destruction of Jerusalem and
the temple, but I'll tell you where all that is fulfilled in
perfection. That's at the second coming of
Christ. Listen to what Luke said, how he put it, Luke 21, 27. And
then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption
draweth nigh. And it's gonna happen just like
that. In the twinkling of an eye, as
we say it. Well, look here at verse 28. Here's the Word of
God stands sure. Look at verse 28. He says, Now
learn a parable of the fig tree. When her branch is yet tender
and putteth forth leaves, you know what? That summer is near.
That parable, the fig trees, when they blossom, when they
begin to blossom, you know that summer is near. That's a signification. So verse 29, he says, so ye in
like manner, when you shall see these things come to pass, know
that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you,
that this generation shall not pass till all these things be
done. Now, this verse right here is
why some commentators say, well now this is referring to the
destruction of Jerusalem and nothing more. Because he says,
this generation, meaning those who were alive at that time,
they're going to see all these things come to pass, be fulfilled. And that is true. They were.
The disciples were alive when the temple and the city was destroyed
in AD 70. But that word generation, that
word generation could refer to a span of time set forth by God
and age, the last age. And the generation he may be
talking about here, and I believe he is, is all the generations
throughout the new covenant. It's not going to end until all
these things come to pass. And he says in verse 31, heaven
and earth shall pass away. What does that sound like? But
my word shall not pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away. That's going to be at his second
coming. But he says, you mark it down. When you see these things
coming, those things spoken, you know it's at hand, all of
that, he's coming again. And all of this that he's doing
for his glory and for his people at that second coming, There's
gonna be another desolation. And that's the end of the world.
Peter spoke of it in 2 Peter 3. In 2 Thessalonians 2, I'm
not gonna go there today, but I'm gonna preach on that in a
coming message. And I know a lot of people don't
like this term, but I like it, so I'm gonna use it. The visible
church. All right, the visible church.
Now what I mean by the visible church what historians call Christendom. That which is called or labeled
Christian will, in the majority, be Christian in name only, but
not in doctrine. It'll be taken over by false
Christianity, freewillism, works and salvation conditioned on
sinners, deception and delusion, And this is an ongoing tribulation,
trouble, and it troubles what? The true church. Who is the true
church? That's the elect of God. That's
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll go through that tribulation
due to opposition and persecution from the false church. Now that
opposition, that persecution may come in different forms.
It may be light, it may be heavy. We don't know. But how do we
fight it? How do we fight this opposition?
I'll tell you how. It's not with guns and knives.
It's not with a survivalist attitude. We fight it with the preaching
of the gospel. Remember Christ said that the
gospel must be preached in all nations? Remember Peter said
that God's not willing that any of his people, any of his elect
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now how are they
going to come to repentance? How do you come to repentance?
By the power of the Spirit and the preaching of the gospel who
brings us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the gift of
repentance is God bringing us to turn away from anything and
everything else but the blood and righteousness of Christ for
salvation. We fight it with the preaching
of the gospel. We fight it with the fellowship
of the saints. Why are we here this morning?
Why don't we just blend in with the rest of the crowd? Because
we're not deceived. Because God has revealed himself.
We're together in this. See, that's our fellowship. Fellowship
of truth, fellowship of love, fellowship of worship. And so
look at verse 30. Verily I say unto you, that this
generation shall not pass away till all these things be done,
but heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass
away. Well, these last verses are just
an encouragement for God's people to do what? To be aware, to watch,
to pray, listen to it. But of that day and that hour,
no man knoweth. No, not the angels which are
in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, listen,
watch, stay awake, and pray. Pray. I thought about that when I read
that because you know a lot of times I'm ashamed of my prayer
life. I feel like it ought to be better,
and it should. Diligence in prayer. speaking to my Lord and honoring
Him and glorifying Him. Pray. For you know not when the
time is. We don't know when this is coming. And again, we shouldn't be concerned
with that. You know, the Thessalonian church, they were so concerned
with it, they quit their jobs and went off and lived in caves.
And when they got hungry, they expected the people who were
working to feed them. That's when Paul said, you don't
work, you don't eat. No, we go about our lives. Verse
34, the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left
his house, gave authority to his servants, and to every man
his work, and commanded the porter to watch. And what did Christ
do? What did he tell him before he
ascended unto the Father? Go ye in all the world and preach
the gospel. and whatever labor God has given
you, do it. Verse 35, watch ye therefore
for you know not when the master of the house cometh. He may come
at evening, midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning.
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. Does that mean that I better
not be sleeping in my bed when he comes? No. He's talking about how we should
be diligent as a church in witnessing and preaching the gospel. Get
that message out there. It's not because God is dependent
upon us to save His people. No, but this is God's way and
it glorifies Him and it exalts Christ. And He says in verse
37, and what I say unto you, I say unto all, all believers,
be watchful. Here's the reality, Christ is
coming again. We're going to meet him in judgment.
The standard of judgment is his righteousness, isn't that right?
Like 1731. I must have his righteousness,
else I perish. You say, well, I must be a believer.
That's true, but the faith to believe, the spiritual life comes
from him. We're going to spend eternity
somewhere, and our only hope is Christ. That's what this is
all about. That's what it was about in AD
70. It was what it was about the day after and everything
following. And it'll be that way when Christ
comes again. Okay.